Fresh perspective on Paul's teaching about God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Spirit

Paul's ways of speaking about God, Jesus, and the Spirit are intricately intertwined: talking about any one of the three, for Paul, implies reference to all of them together. However, much current Pauline scholarship discusses Paul's God-, Christ-, and Spirit-language without reference to trinitarian theology.

In contrast to that trend, Wesley Hill argues in this book that later, post-Pauline trinitarian theologies represent a better approach, opening a fresh angle on Paul's earlier talk about God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Spirit. Hill looks critically at certain well-known discussions in the field of New Testament studies — those by N. T. Wright, Richard Bauckham, Larry Hurtado, and others — in light of patristic and contemporary trinitarian theologies, resulting in an innovative approach to an old set of questions.

Adeptly integrating biblical exegesis and historical- systematic theology, Hill's Paul and the Trinity shows how trinitarian theologies illumine interpretive difficulties in a way that more recent theological concepts have failed to do.

Francis Watson— Durham University"There has long been a consensus among New Testament scholars that the doctrine of the Trinity has little to contribute to the study of the New Testament in general and Paul in particular. Wesley Hill presents here a fundamental challenge to that consensus, making sophisticated use of resources drawn from ancient and modern trinitarian conceptuality to bring to light the pervasively relational structure of Paul's statements about God, Christ, and the Spirit. Hill's outstanding book should cause scholars to question — or preferably to abandon — conventional non-relational and un-trinitarian approaches to Pauline theological discourse."

Matthew Levering— Mundelein Seminary"To say that this book is exciting and important would be a major understatement. . . . Hill brings together cutting-edge Pauline exegesis and the main lines of traditional trinitarian theology in an extraordinary and unique synthesis. Simply put, Hill has accomplished a breakthrough that will transform Pauline studies."

Douglas A. Campbell— Duke Divinity School"Hill engages carefully and explicitly with some of the key resources of trinitarian theology — in particular, the relational understanding of personhood — to illuminate both Paul's thinking about Jesus within the identity of God and modern attempts to grasp it. . . . Welcome, courageous, and deeply informative."

Fred Sanders— Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University"This book is a breakthrough. Wesley Hill notes and describes an element of Paul's thought that has been overlooked for too long. . . . Exegetes who rightly fret over the danger of imposing a foreign and anachronistic conceptual grid on Paul's texts are invited to take up and read: without flash or bombast, Hill nimbly models just how apt and illuminating the trinitarian matrix is for serious biblical studies."

Khaled Anatolios— Boston College"This is theological exegesis at its very best, a brilliant demonstration of `the interdependence of biblical exegesis and dogmatic theology.' "

Daniel J. Treier— Wheaton College"Wesley Hill provides an intriguing argument for fundamentally reframing the questions we ask about Pauline christology and trinitarian theology. Given the exegetical care and theological consciousness on display in this well-written book, Hill's case deserves serious consideration. Along the way, the book models promising interaction between Scripture and Christian doctrine."

Angus Paddison— University of Winchester"In this crisply argued volume Hill demonstrates that theology and the reading of Scripture do not just belong together but need one another. Trinitarian theology, Hill convincingly shows, can provide hermeneutical resources for unlocking how Paul speaks of God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. . . . This is theological exegesis at its finest and sharpest."

Lewis Ayres— Durham University"Advocates with clarity and power for a dense trinitarian reading of Paul. Hill reveals Paul's own subtle use of trinitarian categories, and he shows us how to draw on the trinitarian faith of the church to draw out the beauty and depth of Paul's vision."

Spirit & Life"Argues that post-Pauline theologies can serve as a hermeneutic lens through which the text can be interpreted, thus providing fresh insights."

N. T. Wright, The Living Church"This is a bold and interesting argument. It deserves careful pondering not only for its proposals about using later trinitarian theological categories to understand Paul but also for the wider challenge of seeing the first five Christian centuries as a continuum rather than in two different compartments — which raises important questions about Scripture and tradition. . . . An important step forward."